Friends (?)
by dammitspawk
Summary: It was 2 am when Rodney burst into John's quarters unannounced. After Rodney stepped in the door shut swiftly behind him and John couldn't so much as furrow his brow before Rodney began to speak.


It was 2 am when Rodney burst into John's quarters unannounced. He was a bit disheveled but still wore his day clothes. His hair stood on end and his blue t-shirt was slightly unzipped at the neck. John had just changed into his t-shirt and track pants that he usually slept in but was still sitting up in bed reading _War and Peace_ with the lights on but low. After Rodney stepped in the door shut swiftly behind him and John couldn't so much as furrow his brow before Rodney began to speak.

"So here's the thing, Jennifer and I broke up today which came as a surprise to me because I thought we were going just fine, but she said that she couldn't keep me for herself when I was so obviously in love with someone else, to which I was even more surprised and confused and so I asked her what she meant, who was I in love with supposedly but then she just got frustrated telling me that I was acting like a child, that it was so obvious to everyone so why was I hiding it still, and by the end of it she just said 'You'll figure it out Rodney,' and left, and the worst part of it was this all happened in the infirmary after dinner and there were people there so now the entire city knows-"

"Rodney." John was pretty sure Rodney hadn't taken a breath since he'd come into John's room. Rodney's eyes had previously migrated to the floor while his hands danced around during his explanation but then lifted back up to meet John's. Rodney had been talking so quickly that John was sure that someone who hadn't spent the last six years with Rodney wouldn't have understood a word. His eyes held a mix of confusion, uncertainty and a little fear. John's tongue darted out between his lips. The feeling of happy elation that he tried to beat down as Rodney rambled standing there by his door threatened to spill out.

"You okay buddy?" John slipped out of bed and stood before Rodney, all set to grab the beer and head out to the pier to mend Rodney's confused and broken heart. When John flipped that coin and signed onto the Atlantis expedition, falling in love with his best friend who happened to be the smartest man in two galaxies was the furthest thing from what he thought he'd be doing in the Ancient city. Even further was comforting him when he got his heart broken.

"Yeah I am," Rodney responded but made no attempt to move from the spot his feet had solidly fixed him in. His eyes softened. "Anyway," he continued, it wouldn't leave me alone you know. What she said."

John's thoughts were caught between saying, "It's 2 am Rodney go to bed," or shutting up and standing there to listen to the long list of possibles Rodney was about to rhyme off, no doubt all blonde women with amazing bodies and minds that didn't even come close to touching Rodney's. His indecision caused him to stay silent long enough for Rodney to continue regardless.

"I started going through my daily schedule in my head, trying to come up with anyone I even remotely might have showed interest in for a second that wasn't Jennifer. To be honest with her I didn't even bother looking at anyone you know, I mean why exert the extra energy when I had Jen right?" Rodney's hands had become active again. Dancing around each other, fingers caressing fingers, fist meeting palm, rubbing, jumping away from each other like two polar identical magnets to come around each other in a doomed orbit, set on a crash course for each other to begin the whole restless process again. They distracted John for a moment as Rodney spoke. Again John's lips split slightly to let out his flippant tongue.

"Really the only other person I spend any time with is you," Rodney, in a very un-Rodney-like gesture shuffled his feet a bit, looking straight at John. Suddenly the few feet between them seemed like a vast chasm the length of which seemed completely unbreachable. "And so _that_ got me thinking even more. I mean we're friends right? Friends spend a lot of time together."

John swallowed hard, His tongue threatening to make yet another escape.

"Friends are willing to die for each other, friends steal food off each other's plates, friends sometimes - not regularly, on _occasion _\- blow their girlfriends off to go drinking together, friends stay in the infirmary for five days waiting for the other to wake up from a near-fatal run in with a bunch of aliens." By now Rodney was looking anywhere but at John, his eyes flicked from the floor, to his hands, the ceiling, John's rumpled bed. John took an experimental step towards him, leaving still enough room to make him ache to be closer but still close enough to reach out if he wanted to.

John wished he could say something, anything to make Rodney look at him. He knew that there would be no way to keep his feelings in check after this but he hoped Rodney was going where he thought he was going with this because John knew that it was impossible for him to stay behind the line of 'just friends' now.

"Although," Rodney started again, "I'm not sure that friends think about running their fingers through the other's stupid stupid hair," John's heart leapt into his throat, "or think about what it would feel like to have the other's fingers skim along their arm in a… more that friendly way," Rodney took a breath and finally (_finally) _looked John in the eyes. "And I don't think friends think about how their lips would feel against the others."

There was a heavy pause between them for a moment.

"I think I figured out what Jennifer was talking about," Rodney finished with an awkward chuckle. John could feel his emotions on his face. The relief nearly made him lose his feet.

"So," John finally spoke, his voice felt alien to him, too deep and raw, "are we friends?"

"Yes," Rodney said. "But-"

Rodney stepped forward, finally eliminating the majority of the leftover space between them. He raised his right hand and began to run his fingers through John's raven hair. John instinctively leant into the touch. Rodney smiled and made a happy noise. John broke out of his frozen state and moved his own hand to Rodney's unoccupied wrist. The scientist's warm skin tingled beneath his fingertips as he gently caressed his way up to Rodney's elbow and then to his shoulder. Rodney's fingertips left trails of warmth as they made their way around John's scalp to the base of his neck.

"So? Is it all you imagined it to be?" John said with a hint of sarcasm. It just came out rough and scratchy and breathless. Rodney shook his head slightly.

"This is so much better," he replied with a soft smile that illuminated his eyes.

"Well there's still one thing left," John said leaning in, leaving space for Rodney to change his mind.

Instead Rodney's soft grip on the back of John's neck tightened as he pulled him close, placing his lips firmly on John's.


End file.
